Put away your phone. The PowerShot ELPH 170 IS packs a whopping 20 megapixel sensor in a petite package. Plus, a 25mm to 300mm wide-angle lens with a 12X optical zoom lets you capture friends, family, and famous places with heightened precision and clarity--whether you're across the room or across the street.

Make movie magic. With the press of a dedicated button, easily record impromptu, high-definition videos of the kids or capture celebrations--with complete confidence that memories are preserved in critical detail and color. From Canon.

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Reviews & Community QA

Rated 3.2 out of 5 by 14
reviewers.

Rated 5 out of 5 by SavvyVAShopper Great little camera
For a recent trip to Disney World, I wanted a camera smaller than my large Canon and settled on this. This is a great "point and shoot" camera and was easy to operate. The battery lasted the entire week without recharge. You won't go wrong with the purchase of this camera.
06-05-16

Rated 5 out of 5 by dontazz canon powershot
this is about the size of a cell phone but has some very nice pictures. I brought it for my wife who does not like cell phones as she can not work them very well. and it is her favor color blue.
08-21-15

Rated 5 out of 5 by Ruthiem Unbelievable Little Camera
I bought this little camera over a month ago to take with me on a trip to Europe. I didn't want to lug my large Canon DSLR along. This little camera allowed me to grab absolutely beautiful images on the fly, even through the windows of a bus. I can't imagine what's going on with the one-star ratings here! I found the camera to be spectacular! Absolutely great resolution even when zoomed. Great color reproduction. Worked unbelievably well in situations with difficult lighting! I have made gorgeous slideshows with the images and they are still crisp and beautiful when shown on a large TV screen. Friends who have seen the results are amazed. I am thrilled with this purchase, and the price I paid for it was great! Could not be happier!
05-27-16

Rated 1 out of 5 by CWGU3 Very Dissapointed
My wife got this 170is camera for me as a birthday gift when my powershotSD1400is lens failed . We left for Washington state the day after I got it so I didn't have a lot of time to play with it. Wow was I upset to find that When i tried to take Photos and use any custom settings that there aren't any available? the menu allows only minor changes to brightness or contrast. and after about 40 or so pictures the battery (which I charged fully before using it), Died. Not a good thing when you're trying to capture the beauty of Mt.Rainier. Thank God for my Iphone and My wife's Canon 1400is . By the way the batteries for the 1400is and the 170is are the same voltage , the same amp. But the contacts are in different places so you cant use the same charger or swap batteries (which she carries a spare). So we get to the rental car and Plug in the USB chord we bought at the gift shop only to find that the camera wont charge thru the USB port.
And the only Charger that will work is the one that came with the camera. This thing is going Back to the store.
04-26-16

Rated 3 out of 5 by Verified Reviewer Disappointed
Im an amateur photographer. I bought this camera to quickly take photos and videos on the go. I didnt expect the camera to have DSLR quality. But the videos I took on this camera were grainy in low light and It was hard to take steady photos at times even though this camera has Image Stabilizer. I would get light streaks when Im in bright light, I honestly wouldn't recommend this camera unless you just want something to take so-so pics in.
04-03-16

Rated 1 out of 5 by lynncon Disappointed in picture quality
Like other reviewers I have found the picture quality to be very poor. I believe I have the camera set to the best quality but the photos I take are only 250kb and look grainy. My iphone and ipad take much better pictures with sizes of 1.5mb. Had it too long to return.
03-18-16

Rated 3 out of 5 by osanbat depends
No usb cable to interface with computer.....no sd card included.....does not appear to be compatable with windows vista operating system for viewing and downloading, windows 7 and above only. Pictures taken in auto mode seem to be grainy in normal light conditions.
12-29-15

Rated 5 out of 5 by Alvar Far Better than Expected
This is the first Canon camera I ever bought, and my first personal camera. I've had some experience with an older digital compact before this, so I really didn't know what to expect with Canon.
I was browsing around for a decent low priced camera to take photos of a trip I went on, and almost bought the predecessor to this, but the new improvements looked good enough to wait for. So I waited a few days to order this on the first day it was released, and I'm glad I waited.
The image quality kept getting better and better the more I practiced taking photos with this. I was expecting it to perform worse because I was looking at photos that other people have taking with their older model ELPHs to judge how this might perform, but both the optical zoom and digital zoom can achieve some very sharp quality photos. The long shutter mode works great in low light settings, but you'll get some visual noise if there are no street lights around. Close up photos show up very sharp if you have your settings right. The photos captured true colors, and even the colors of some objects that many cameras can't seem to capture well, like rainbows.
I now have a tiny tripod for it, which has allowed to work even better for certain things.
This camera can capture distant objects, such as the moon at night, quite well. Sometimes moving objects can be captured very finely if the settings are right. The battery life is pretty good if flash is off, but bad if you're using the flash. So I would suggest getting a second battery.
The biggest problem is that there are no full manual controls. The auto-focus may decide to back out a pinch too far, or the shutter speed just isn't fast enough when it easily could have been manually set. If there is a zoom dial, then there could have been a focus dial too, or a button to hold to let the zoom dial double as a focus dial.
I don't use most of the settings and modes since I never need them, but it could've used a few modes more, like panoramic stitching. The flash is too close to the lens, which can produce a shadow when trying to take photos of objects close-up.
Horizon photos taken can appear not as large looking, so it would of been nice if there was a wide-angle cap that just slides on the front of the lens, but that isn't such a big deal. I can't say how well the Image Stabilizer works since I have nothing to compare it to, but it seems okay. Really windy locations may cause some blurring if you're just holding the camera.
In the time I've had this camera, I've really enjoyed it. You must practice using it to understand how the settings decide to capture photos, but after that, you can get some great photos with this. I would rate it somewhere between 4/5 and 5/5. I haven't used many cameras, but if the photos look great, then the photos look great. I can't say anything less, but they truly need a full manual mode since it could make a huge difference.
12-27-15

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